Classroom Implications: Dr. Washburn discusses what her and her colleagues have found with respect to their research into teacher knowledge of the basic constructs of literacy. She also discusses some excellent resources to boost teacher knowledge of these key concepts in the podcast (also listed below).

There are a handful of studies that point to the impact of explicit teacher knowledge on student achievement (with a need for more!). Dr. Washburn referred to the following studies showing the positive impact on student achievement (Mc Cutchen et al., 2009; Piasta et al., 2009; Spear-Swerling, 2009) as well as a study that in which the researchers (Carlisle et al., 2009) did not find teacher knowledge to impact student achievement.